


Everyday It's A-Gettin' Closer

by gaialux



Category: Grease (1978)
Genre: High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-25
Updated: 2013-12-25
Packaged: 2018-01-06 02:16:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1101196
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gaialux/pseuds/gaialux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eventually, they won.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Everyday It's A-Gettin' Closer

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheDoodyPoo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheDoodyPoo/gifts).



> I got to write Danny/Kenickie! I love these two. Little snippets of each of their years in high school, and one beyond. References to underage sex, but nothing more than kissing is shown. Some references to Danny/Rizzo, Danny/Sandy, and Kenickie/Rizzo. Warning for potentially perceived infidelity, but I've left it relatively ambiguous IMO.

Danny meets Kenickie when they're freshmen. He's the guy in the leather jacket with a cigarette shoved behind his ear, whereas — at that point at least — Danny's struggling with the godawful button-down shirt his mother forces him to wear. Kenickie is sixteen, likes to brag about being kept down because the teacher's don't _get_ him and he has no patience to get  _them._

A few days with Kenickie, and Danny's got his own leather jacket, a packet of smokes under his rolled-up t-shirt arm, and he's saving for the car they've decided to buy. Drag racing, Kenickie says. That's where the chicks are at and that's what the two of them are going to aim for.

Danny doesn't say anything, but he tries to nod enthusiastically and imagines flying over the finish line with Kenickie by his side. He doesn't even care who drives.

 

* * *

 

The idea for the T-Birds starts when they're sophomores. Originally they're The Rebels, but that idea gets thrown into the backburner as soon as they realise how unoriginal and stupid it sounds. They start scouring the nearby schools and towns to learn what else is going on. The Scorpions cross their path early on. Danny hates them practically immedietly, and their leader is a top-notch bone head. Still, the name does inspire something.

Later, when they're drunk and dosed up on about as much tobacco as a person can handle, Kenickie exclaims, "Birds!" and flops his head over the side of the bed so he's inches from Danny.

Danny grins up at him from the floor and nods. "Yeah, birds. Then we can  _fly_ through those drag races."

"Lame," Kenickie says, but he also has a grin tugging at his lips and Danny staring at him seems to pull that into a fully-fledged laugh in no time at all.

He doesn't know where the 'T' comes from. Neither of them do. It came from late-night drunk ramblings and too much Buddy Holly tunes. But Danny does remember one thing, even if Kenickie won't admit it until years ( _decades_ ) later: They kiss. For the first time.

 

* * *

 

Doody, Sonny, and Putzie appear when they're juniors. Well, not so much  _appear_ as  _emerge_ from the crowds of nerds and jocks. Doody with a plastic water gun he swings around on his fingers as Sonny schmoozes up to Danny and Kenickie and Putzie stares at the skirts walking by.

"Me and my buds," Sonny says, and Danny's side-eyeing him already. "We been trying to get a gang together, y'know. And we figure, you guys are pretty  _cool_."

How they manage to join is still up in the air, but after a while they're smoking in the bleachers and hitting on the Pink Ladies. Danny hangs back, watches them, and Kenickie tends to stay by his side.

"Will you look at them?" Kenickie laughs. "Man, how did we end up with those guys?"

Danny shrugs and shifts his jacket — now embezzeled with their T-Bird logo, made by the two of them — up around his ears. "They're alright, I guess. I mean Jan's been looking for a date for awhile. Could do worse than Putz."

"I'd say you could play martyr, but she's not really your type, huh?" Kenickie looks pointedly at Rizzo as he says the words.

He knows what Kenickie's talking about even before he says it. One weekend. That's all there was to it. But Danny still looks at Kenickie from the corner of his eye, sees him staring at Rizzo, and tries to read his mind. It's fruitless, of course, but...He wants to know —  _n_ _eeds_ to know — if he's staring at Rizzo because he's jealous _for_ her or jealous _of_ her.

Danny's not quite sure if he ever finds that answer.

 

* * *

 

Senior year is when he meets Sandy. Well, the summer before. On a beach holiday and she's running along the sand. He really tries to look at her, to see something in her that Doody and Sonny and Putzie are always raving about (not that he'll ever,  _ever_ admit to thinking of  _them_ for advice) when it comes to chicks — especially the blonde ones. He can't really find it, at least not fully, but goes and speaks to her anyway. She's pretty enough, with bright blue eyes and a cute accent she says is Australian. Guys dig foreign chicks, right? They talk, they kiss, and she doesn't want to go any further. Danny's not sure whether to be annoyed or relieved.

Going back to school, he can embrace it. Can skit around the issue. He never outright  _lies_ , but he always watches Kenickie when he hints of something less than truthful. Kenickie's almost impossible to read, but Danny swears he sees  _something_ now and then. Especially when Kenickie hooks up with Rizzo only a few weeks into the school year, comes and finds Danny afterwards and says how great a lay she was. Best ever. And the  _kissing._ Well, _Jesus-fuck_ is she perfect, according to him. Danny tells him to take his piece of junk car and piss off, tells him the next day all the anger was because Sandy ditched him at the drive-in.

Fuck Kenickie. Danny's through with him.

 

* * *

 

The second time they kiss is the night after the drag-race. The one they dreamed about since they were kids and Kenickie showed him the ropes of the world. Kenickie shows up at Danny's house, still slightly woozy and uneasy on his feet. Danny makes him sit on the bed, then lay down when the swaying doesn't stop.

"You should really go to the hospital," he says.

Kenickie gives a wave of his hand. "Nah. M'fine. Just a bump on the head." He sits up a little on the pillows, his eyes suddenly alight. "Hey, Danny, we  _won_. Greased Lightning  _won_."

"Yeah." Danny gently pushes his shoulder back into the bed. He doesn't need Kenickie passed out on the floor — his parents already have enough issues with his friends as it is.

Kenickie lies back without a fight. "Can you believe we're  _graduates_? I'm almost twenty-one. How the hell did I get this old?"

Danny shakes his head. "Not old." He doesn't think the words are very convincing when he's only close to nineteen himself.

"Ancient," Kenickie amends. "My dad was twenty-one when he had  _me_."

"You want kids?" Danny asks it before he can stop himself.

Kenickie doesn't seem to notice how awkward the question should be. Then again, maybe it's not, all recent things considered. "When we thought Rizzo was..." he cuts off, then continues, "...I was scared but, I dunno, I think I could've done it, y'know? If I had to. Maned up and everything."

Silence. Danny can't think of anything to say. Maybe earlier this year  _did_ prove that it was only jealousy toward Danny for having hooked up with Rizzo. And he knows Kenickie would have made a good father. Could have made a good husband, too, if that's what needed to be done. Danny would have been his best man, stood there and let it happen. Because that was  _normal_ , that was  _expected_ , and they're still best friends. No matter what.

"Hey," Kenickie says quietly, then he has a hand hooked behind Danny's neck before Danny can even blink. "We  _won_."

Kenickie props himself up off the bed again and this time Danny doesn't push him back down. They both pause for what feels like a long time but is probably less than a second, just enough time for Kenickie to blink before leaning closer and kissing Danny.

Kenickie's the one with the head injury, but it still takes Danny a good while for his brain to kick in and tell him  _kiss_ , _s_ _econd kiss_ ,before he goes with it, his hands reaching to hold against Kenickie's shoulders until they pull apart way too soon. Only Kenickie doesn't roll away and ignore him this time. They're not even drunk this time. Instead, Kenickie smiles at him and falls back into the pillows.

"We _won_ ," he whispers.


End file.
